1. Field of Invention
The disclosure relates to a dynamic hard disk mapping method and a server using the same. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a dynamic hard disk mapping method which can adjust a number of respective hard disks corresponding to multiple motherboards and a server using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
With rapid development of network technology, various novel network devices and information devices are successively developed to meet human demand. In these devices, a network server formed from redundant array of independent hard disks (RAID) is particularly important. The network server is directly connected to a network system, such that a remote computer device stores data into the network server or accesses data in the network server through this network system.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic functional block diagram showing a conventional server 10. The server 10 includes a plurality of motherboards 12, a disk expander 14 and a plurality of hard disks 16. It can be seen from FIG. 1 that, in order to provide a hard disk array with a large storage capacity, most of conventional servers use the disk expander 14 to implement connection among the plurality of hard disks 16, such that the server 10 has sufficient storage space to meet client's demands. The plurality of hard disks 16 are generally divided into a plurality of disk groups 18 in accordance with a predetermined grouping mode, and each of the disk groups 18 is corresponding to one of the plurality motherboards 12, so as to provide the storage space required for operating of the motherboards 12. The action of dividing the hard disks into the groups 18 and corresponding the groups 18 to the motherboards 12 is referred to as mapping.
In order to set a number of hard disks 16 corresponding to each of the motherboards 12, a jumper or a special connection cable is often needed for setting. For example, as shown in FIG. 1a, the disk expander 14 has a plurality of setting pins 14a, and a user mounts a jumper 19a on two of the setting pins 14a in accordance with a required disk grouping mode, thereby short-circuiting the two pins. For another example, as shown in FIG. 1b, if the disk expander 14 is a serial attached SCSI (SAS), a SAS connection cable 19b is used for connecting the plurality of hard disks 16 with the disk expander 14, so as to set the number of the hard disks corresponding to each motherboard.
Since the method of setting the number of hard disks involves hardware architecture, each disk grouping mode is corresponding to a hardware setting value. If a user desires to expand the number of hard disks or change the number of the hard disks corresponding to each motherboard, the server has to be dismantled for resetting the jumper or reconnecting the cable.
Thus, there is a need to provide a novel disk mapping method and a server using the same for overcoming the disadvantages of the aforementioned conventional skill.